That Roll of Film I Forgot About (About That Bird)

What kind of bird is this?

I panicked a bit yesterday when I saw the slip for picking up my film along a ledge at home, dated for August 10. What if they'd gotten rid of it already? My film's with the store, so I would never be able to reprint those! So I immediately got my brother to pick up the package for me, having pretty much forgotten already what was on this roll of film apart from some foggy shots of the city, and was pleasantly surprised to see this bird again when I looked through the prints.

Taking flight - look at those beautiful wings!

I have no idea what kind of bird this is, but it was on the street one day some months ago, I believe. It refused to move too far from the center of the street despite urging by a couple of children, though cars coming in spotted it and slowed down, swerving slowly around it.

Beautiful patterning, completely symmetrical

As you might have surmised, this is really just a horror story waiting to happen, so I'll just get to it: a car came into the street way faster than it was supposed to be going for a street like ours, and ran the bird over, leaving an explosion of feathers in its wake, never stopping - not even slowing - and the poor bird flapping its one wing against the ground as it spun in circles.

I didn't take any photos of the mess left behind, but both the remnants and the blood stayed caked on the road for a while until the next great rainfall, which washed away the remnants.

No sense of self-preservation

What really surprised me though was the bird's complete lack of self-preservation! It never strayed too far from where it was (in danger), only flew when we charged at it to get it out of the way in order to scare it away from the actual danger, and didn't seem to be scared of cars at all. Like I said, it was a tragedy waiting to happen: thank goodness those children had gone when it happened.

The remainder of the photos to come in another post, since I wanted to give this bird a bit of attention. Also, what type of bird is this?